Japanese “Ramen Eggs” (Ajitsuke Tamago)

Rachel

5 months ago

This post may contain affiliate links.

I grew up in the South Bay of Los Angeles — an area of the US with the most Japanese-Americans. This means I was lucky to grow up with tons of close JA friends and also incredible Japanese food (I even took 3 years of Japanese in high school!). Before restaurant-style ramen swept the country, my friends and I were cozying up to bowls of all styles of ramen in Gardena regularly as an after school treat.

As a bonafide egg lover, my favorite part was always the ajitsuke tamago, more colloquially known as a “ramen egg.” The perfect ramen egg has a soft jammy yolk with a brown exterior that gradually blends to white when cut open. It’s salty and sweet, flavored with common Japanese ingredients: soy sauce, dashi, and mirin. Making them is super easy but requires just a bit of forethought, as these need to marinate for at least 12 hours and up to 48 — after that they get a bit too salty for my taste.

As for leftover marinating liquid, since I got asked this question a bunch: here are some ideas for making use of it:

Pour it, as is, over rice as a delicious sauce
Add it to uncooked rice before cooking to infuse the rice with some yummy flavor
Reduce it down to a thick sauce that can be poured over meats
Use the marinade as-is for marinating meats (you can freeze it if you’re not ready to marinate right away)
Add it to a stir fry instead of soy sauce as a dead simple, but very tasty, stir fry flavoring

If you like ramen eggs, check out their cousins: Korean mayak eggs and Chinese-style lo shui/lo suei shortcut eggs.

Special Ingredients

Dashi Powder — This magical ingredient is a kitchen hero, packing a complex umami and fishy (in a good way) flavor into dishes, and quickly. Traditional dashi is made like making a stock and takes a lot of time — time that I don’t always have. You can find dashi powder at most Asian markets. I prefer the kind that comes in a little jar, which is much easier for scooping, than the kind that comes in packets, though both work just fine. If you can’t find it at a store near you, you can also get it online.
Mirin — Mirin is a sweet rice cooking wine and can be found at most Asian markets, but you can also get it online. In a pinch, it can be omitted, but at the expense of a more authentic flavor.

Japanese "Ramen Eggs" (Ajitsuke Tamago)

These ubiquitous eggs are familiar to anyone who's had restaurant-quality ramen. They're marinated overnight in a simple sauce that gives them an addictive sweet-savory soy flavor that can be paired with rice or noodles. Feel free to scale this recipe as needed — though you may need to increase the liquid to eggs ratio depending on the size of your marinating vessel. See notes for more info.

Course Breakfast, Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Japanese

Keyword asian cooking, easy recipe, eggs, hard boiled eggs, japanese food, weeknight meal

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 7

Marinating Time 1

Servings eggs

Ingredients

3 large eggs straight from the fridge
1/4 tsp dashi powder
2 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp boiling water
1 Tbsp cool water
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp mirin

Instructions

Boil the eggs: bring a medium sized pot of water to a full boil on high heat. Carefully lower your eggs into the water, making sure to not drop them to the bottom of the pot or they'll crack. Continue to boil on high for exactly 7 minutes, then carefully spoon the eggs out with a slotted spoon and immediately transfer them to an ice water bath.
Let sit in the ice water until ready to use.
3 large eggs
In a small heatproof container (ideally like Glasslock or similar—you want the container to be as small as possible while still fitting 3 eggs without squishing them), add the dashi powder, sugar, and boiling water. Either seal the container if it has a leakproof lid and shake to dissolve, OR stir the mixture carefully until the sugar and dashi dissolve.
1/4 tsp dashi powder, 3 Tbsp boiling water, 2 Tbsp sugar
Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
1 Tbsp cool water, 2 tsp mirin, 3 Tbsp soy sauce
Carefully peel the eggs and add them to the sauce mixture. Seal the container and transfer it to the fridge at least 12 hours, and up to 48. After that, the eggs tend to get too salty for my taste.
Enjoy cold or room temperature with rice or noodles.

Notes

If your eggs aren't fully submerged, it's not necessarily a big deal but you'll end up with uneven coloring. If this bothers you, you can use the paper towel trick: simply lay a piece of clean paper towel over the top of the eggs, hanging into the sauce, so the sauce can travel up the paper towel and cover all sides of the eggs. However, I have received criticism in the past for utilizing this trick because paper towels are not necessarily considered food safe. Use at your discretion!
Another way to submerge your eggs more evenly is to use a ziploc baggie for marinating. Add your marinade and eggs and make sure to remove all the air from the bag (you can also use the water submersion technique if you're familiar with sous vide cooking). This will stretch your marinade further, however, you'll likely end up with splotchy eggs (that still taste great!).